


And Thus, Boy Met Girl

by Fluffy_Dragon



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Amnesia, Brief mention of body horror, Gen, Human Dolores (Umbrella Academy), Loneliness, Post-Apocalypse, Sleep Deprivation
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-10
Updated: 2020-09-10
Packaged: 2021-03-06 21:33:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,902
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26395711
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fluffy_Dragon/pseuds/Fluffy_Dragon
Summary: When he had foolishly leaped through time and space and into the dark apocalyptic future, Five had thought to be the last human alive. It’s not until he visits the ruins of his home once more for answers to a mistake that he is proven wrong.
Relationships: Dolores/Number Five | The Boy (Umbrella Academy)
Kudos: 17





	And Thus, Boy Met Girl

**Author's Note:**

> This is a little au fic that I came up with that focuses on how Delores (a mute human girl) and Five meet for the first time. The first two chapters will be introductions to both characters with this chapter below being Five's. If you like it please leave a kudo and a comment below. Thank you :)

Even for the past three years, the sight of it all was hard to swallow. 

Crumbling ruins of buildings that were unrecognizable. The land razed and buckled; scorched by a raging fire. An almost permanent thin cloud of ash and dust blanketed the sky barely providing any sort of shade from the blazing sun. Pieces of ash drifted downward as if it was snowing. The air itself was still saturated with the decay that lingered in the air even after all these years. The stench was so thick at times that he could barely breathe as he tried not to throw up. For the lucky ones, many were turned to ash; their remains scattered to the winds. A merciful quick death some would say.

However, that was not the case for the unlucky few. 

Reduced to nothing more than twisted skeletal remains, the heat from the fires blackening their bones and melted flesh, they had died in the exact moment of their pure terror from where they had stood. Most he found looked to have been clawing at their faces as they screamed in terror and pain while their flesh melted away or fused into their surroundings. Others he found were holding one another tightly. Family. Friends. Total strangers perhaps. All of that didn’t matter in their final moments as they held onto each other as the world burned asunder. 

It was like something out of a horror movie or piece of work from HP Lovecraft the more he looked at them. It was just too unreal. All of it. But when he closed his eyes, telling him that this wasn’t real, he knew that as he opens his eyes that it was real and that everything and everyone was gone. And, no matter the direction he looked towards, all he could see was death and ruin as the world fell into an everlasting state of haunting silence. 

And he was alone now too; utterly alone in this nightmarish dream. A dream that no matter what did he could not wake up. Worst of all was that he could hear the voice of dad every day since that day. 

_**I told you so, Number Five.** _

“Yeah well, if I ever get back old man, I’ll admit it and say you were right.” 

That is… if he can get back was the question. 

Over the past three years, eight months, twelve days of being stranded, Five had strained every avenue he could think of in going back. However, every attempt he had ever made so far has ended in absolute failure. It was clear as day that he had not perfected nor understood his time-traveling ability like he thought he did. His arrogance and pride, his smartasses putting him into this mess. Now, at this moment in time, he was truly stuck. For how long though, who could say? 

Months?

Years? 

Decades even? 

The thought of the latter made his stomach drop as he could feel bile beginning to swell. To be not just stuck here but on top of being alone as well? He wasn’t sure what was worse. Both he was being completely honest with himself. 

When he first began exploring and gathering supplies for himself, Five had hoped that he would come across another human being. Someone to talk to. Someone left alive that he didn’t feel such aching loneliness that ate away at his soul that he wasn’t alone in his waking nightmare of a reality. But, when surveying all the mass destruction around him in his travels and then calculating the probability of human life existing in such a state, the odds of meeting someone alive were, at best, extremely low if not non-existent. 

Becoming ever more determined in finding a way back to the past, back home where he belonged, he threw himself ever more into working on his mathematical equations of time travel. Five knew that if he stayed any longer than he already has, painfully alone, he was sure to go completely batshit insane.

Barely eating. Barely sleeping. Every second of every passing day was worth more to him than the water in his canteen. And so far he had made good progress. Going well past the limits of the forty or so notebooks he had collected, every inch on every page contained his theory of space and time travel mathematical equations tightly together to save room.

However, while reviewing the current state of the equation for the past few weeks, it would seem that he was missing a piece of information. Small but extremely vital, it was a miscalculation he had made that was now costing him time. Extremely precious time. Paranoid that there might be more mistakes, he looked over it until he was sure that it was just that section alone and no others. 

He couldn’t afford to make a single mistake. This was time travel he was dealing with after all. A misplaced decimal could cost him everything if not more. That cost could mean he may end up somewhere far worse than where he is now. 

He may never see his family again.

As such, everything had to be perfect for him to make any sort of attempt. He needed more data, more information to correct his mistake. Most importantly, he needed a better understanding of his ability. 

Since he began writing within his notebooks fragile pages, Five had wondered if anything of value related to his old man had survived at the Academy. At that moment in time, when he had first appeared, all he cared about was finding his family. So when he ran back home as fast as he could and saw all of it was practically gone with no one in sight, he immediately began searching all over the city. When he did find them at last after days of searching, he barely recognized them that he had almost moved on until he spotted something on each of their arms. A very distinct black umbrella-shaped tattoo; heavily covered underneath dried blood and ash. It was the very same one shared between himself and his siblings save only Vanya who body he could not find even after spending weeks looking. Any sort of hope he held onto in finding them was destroyed just like everything else around him. 

When he had found them all, he had taken them back to the remains of their home. Clearing up the rubble that covered the family courtyard, he carefully buried them one by one next to what had remained of Ben’s monument with his name engraved into what was once a white stone. Finding that monument, that Ben had died somehow years before any of this happened, was hard to swallow. Trying and, at times, failing to stay composed, he worked diligently in putting his family to rest. 

The pain. The grief. The agony of losing everything and everyone was just too much for him to bear for him to stick around any longer than he needed too. Once he was done burying his brothers and sisters, he left shortly after. Since that day, he hasn’t been back to the house nor has he held any sort of desire to go back as the pain of seeing their graves would be too much to bear. As such, it has been some time since.

But now things had changed. Now he needed to go back to the Academy. Setting his grief aside for the time being, he headed towards the ruins that were once his home. He hoped that this item, this book, was still somehow, someway, still intact enough to be legible. But this wasn’t just some ordinary book.

It was Reginald Hargreeve's special notebook. 

Embroidered with his initials of RH on a hardcover red surface, his old man kept close by his side. Always seeing him constantly writing in that thing whenever they were training or lessons. Everything relating to both himself and his siblings especially when it came to their powers; a treasure trove of information to anyone who knew or understood its content as he would. It’s exactly what he needed to better understand his powers as well as solve his miscalculation. He knew that he was years out before he was done, but at least he could move on over this hurdle. 

All he needed to do was just find it among the rubble and hope that it wasn’t destroyed. Simple as that. 

With the vast majority of his neighborhood having been destroyed, Five had no choice but to go by the vague broken shapes of landmarks he could remember. It was easier said than done as soon he found himself lost. He knew he was close since he had walked past what was left of Griddy’s Doughnuts which, if he recalled, wasn’t that far from the Academy. 

Wandering now what felt like hours, he soon found himself in a place that was once an intersection of a neighborhood. Seeing a burnt-out bus underneath a large heap of debris blocking his way, Five began to climb, taking care of anything sharp or pointy. For some time now he had been dangerously running low on medical supplies. So, the very last thing he needed was to get nick by something sharp and metal and then die from an infection. 

_“That would really suck ass of that happen.”_

Reaching the last stretch, he reached outward towards a metal beam sticking slightly upwards out of the hill. As he climb over it, he struggled as his feet dangling slightly, the weight of his backpack pulling at him that he could feel himself slipping. Using all the strength he could mustard, he pushes himself upwards until he was finally on top. As he rose to his feet, he stretched out his arms as he balances himself on top of a metal beam, walking towards the very tip one foot at a time as he tries to keep his balance. Standing on the edge, he slowly placing them back at his side once he was sure he had a good balance. Reaching over his face to remove his goggles and mask, Five took in his surroundings as he tried to locate his home street. Much of what was left of the city was covered in a heavy set of ash that masked everything. Any color that wasn’t burnt away from the fires was completely concealed by a bland mixture of brownish-gray tint that coated everything it touched. 

_“What an absolute shit hole.”_

Grimacing, Five covered his eyes with his hand as he tried to block out the bright light of the sun. Looking in every direction down every road he could make off. It’s not until what felt like hours standing that he recognized, barely, the street that his home was located on north from where he was. 

Carefully crawling down the pile rubble before deciding to make a jump, he nearly topples over. The sheer weight of all of his remaining supplies and a heavy stash of notebooks suddenly shifting as he landed had almost caused him to lose his balance once his feet hit the ground. Quickly regaining his balance, he stands up straight, gripping the torn straps of his backpack tightly as he pulled it to adjust its weight back in place, he began moving forward down towards a familiar-looking street. 

“I hope this wasn’t all for nothing.”


End file.
